


Deal and Disappointments

by deprough



Series: Dincember 2020 [9]
Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Dincember, Dincember 2020, F/M, prompt: I'll be home for Christmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:42:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28181085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deprough/pseuds/deprough
Summary: Corrie's evening doesn't go as planned.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Dincember 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2032882
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Deal and Disappointments

**Author's Note:**

> This is part nine of Dincember. You'll want to read the series in order so that everything makes sense.
> 
> 12/18/2020 Dincember prompt - I'll Be Home For Christmas (yep, it's a day late, sorry)

The soft knock at her door brought a smile to Corrie’s face and butterflies to her stomach. She pulled her robe tight and cracked the door to see the Mando’s helmet and wide shoulders filling the space. She opened her door all the way and waved him in, pushing it shut behind him. 

He stood in the room, turning slowly and scanning the area. She wondered what he thought of the small room, with its pale walls, honey bedroom set, and the bed piled in heavily knitted blankets. He didn’t comment on the room, and his visor finally fell on her. “That’s a pretty robe,” he said, in the tones of someone who knows a compliment is expected but doesn’t quite know what to say.

“What’s under is prettier,” Corrie said with a smile.

Mando tilted his head to the side, and his voice warmed as he spoke again. “So helmet on or off?”

“I’d like to see what I can of you this time,” Corrie purred, untying her robe but not letting it fall open. “I’ll put on the blindfold next time.”

“Okay.” He pulled at his armor, removing it piece by piece. Corrie sat down on the bed to watch, crossing her legs as she let her robe fall open. He paused for a second when she did that, his visor locked on her bared skin. She wasn’t sure but she thought the pace of his disrobing sped up after.

When he was done, he straightened and stood still, letting her get a good look at him. He was already hard, and Corrie drank in the sight of his erect cock. His body bore the scars of battles, which she’d missed in the dancing firelight, earlier. She rose and glided toward him, reaching for his chest. Her fingers traced the skull mark on his chest. “What’s this?” she asked. 

“It’s a traditional symbol of my people,” he said, gently taking her hand in his. She pulled it to her mouth and kissed his knuckles; his skin smelled of the soap Brama kept in the guest room as well as the heady smell of a male body. Turning it over, she kissed the palm, then his wrist.

He reached under her robe to brush his fingers over her side. She let him pick his own pace as he slid his hand up her body; she shivered and breathed a moan when he cupped her breast. His thumb traced the peak of her nipple--

“Hey, boss?” Koda’s voice cut through the quiet of the room like a knife. “Do you read?”

“Are you  _ kriffing _ kidding me?” she growled as his hand froze 

“Can you ignore it?” Mando asked, his tone hopeful.

“He wouldn’t call this late unless it was an emergency,” Corrie grumbled, finding her comm on the bedside table. She  _ wouldn’t _ ignore it anyway, not with the growl she heard in her otherwise laconic deputy’s voice. “I’m here, Koda.”

“One of the prisoners just walked into town with hands up. She says she has information and wants to trade that for her life.” 

“Dank farric! Who?”

“Mare Klekki. Zabrakian, reportedly ran the Hutt’s casino before she was caught skimming a bit for herself.”

At least that wasn’t one of the Hutt’s hitmen. She looked at the Mandalorian, who immediately grabbed his pants.  _ Schie _ . She sighed heavily. “I’ll be right there.” Closing the connecting, she grabbed her clothing and grumbled, “Kriff-blocked by my own deputy.”

“Better than your mother.” Mando’s remark was delivered so blandly that it took Corrie a moment to realize how horrific it was. 

Throwing her pillow at him, she said, “You are an evil, evil man.”

He chuckled softly. “That is not the usual context for how I hear that.”

Corrie pulled her sweater over her head and winked at him. “After we settle this, I’ll change your context on a whole lotta things, Mandalorian.”

As she led him out of the room, he murmured heatedly, “Can’t wait.” 

The jail likely couldn’t be rebuilt until spring and the Hamnes needed to be able to continue business in their bar, so operations had been moved to The Hall. Despite the grand name, it was an open air structure used during the summer weddings, for the Harvest Festival, and whatever else Libu’s folks decided to do with it. In winter, it was really only used for the town’s Lifeday service, where everyone came together, sang songs, and drank Brama’s hot chocolate. 

The townfolk had emptied everyone’s supply of spare gurthides and haybales to put up temporary walls. A firepit using sand and rocks had been set up in the middle of the space in an attempt to provide some warmth. Kern had soldered together three iron benches with restraints on them, which was now their space for holding folks. Usually, that was only Old Man Relston when he’d had too much to drink. 

Tonight, the benches held a small-framed Zabrak woman huddling into a blanket and sipping a mug of something hot. Herz knelt on the floor, bandaging the woman’s feet. Without looking up at Carrie, the old doctor said, “She got bad frostbite on her feet and may lose a toe. Other than that, she’s close to hypothermia, malnourished, and dehydrated.”

“How’d all that happen to you?” Corrie asked the woman. 

“The others wouldn’t share,” she said hoarsely, her eyes locked on a spot on the wall. 

“So you left them, thought maybe we would share?” Corrie asked, anger seeping into her voice at the thought that this person thought they could steal from and kill her people, then come begging for a handout when the other prisoners got too mean.

“I left because the Wookie showed up,” Mare said sharply, “and people started to disappear. So did supplies, but that furry monster never seemed to be short of anything. So I left.”

“What information are you offering?” Corrie asked, glad to hear that Maneater was also preying on those that deserved it.

“I’ll tell you where our camp is, if you’ll give me a ticket off-planet.” She took another drink and added, “At this point, I just want to be home for Lifeday.”

Part of Corrie railed against the idea of giving this woman what she wanted, but she had to admit, this was what they needed to finish capturing all of them. “Fine. We’ll trade. If your information catches more prisoners, then you’ll be given a ticket from our spaceport to Iridonia. If we don’t get anyone else from your tip, then you get a blaster bolt to the skull.”

“You’ll just execute me? For the crime of being on a ship that crashed?” Mare said, her voice indignant. 

“We’d have somewhere to put ya if you people hadn’t burned down our jail. You’re lucky that I don’t take your tip and shoot you anyway.” Corrie glared at the woman, vaguely aware that she wasn’t being entirely fair but unable to stop. If these people hadn’t come, Uncle Vinor would still be alive, and so would Talee, and all the other precious members of her town they’d murdered. She had no room in her for mercy or compassion right now.

Mare stared at her, her expression cautious. Corrie saw the moment when she realized her only option was to hope that Corrie kept her word; otherwise, she was dead no matter what. “Bring me a map,” the Zabrak said softly, taking another drink of her mug.

~ * ~ * ~

Two hours ago, Corrie had been half-naked and about to get laid for the first time in years. Now, she was freezing her butt off in the cold winter night, waiting for Mando’s verdict. Impatiently, she crouched in the trees as he crept closer to the clearing, inching carefully.

Finally, he came back and said, “I counted five of them,” Mando told her. “Maneater wasn’t there.”

“Damnit!” Corrie hissed. “That’s three short!”

“Are we getting these five or are we hoping for more?” Mando asked.

Corrie looked back at the posse. Ten faces stared back at her, and in their expressions, Corrie saw their grim eagerness for the hunt. Koda met her eyes and nodded once. She looked to Mando and said, “We take them now.”

Mando set them into position, then gave the signal. The fight was short and one-sided; the prisoners didn’t respond quickly to the attack, and three were dead before the other two had even risen to their feet. The last two had their hands on a weapon when they were cut down.

Afterward, as Corrie helped roll the bodies, she noted that the prisoners bore the marks of hard living: ribs showing, signs of frostbite, and poorly-treated wounds. Few of them appeared to have any proficiency with surviving a harsh winter. Though she hated these people, she felt a small pang of sympathy for how hard their last days had been.

When she thought of the horror they’d inflicted, that sympathy faded.

“Fan out,” she ordered the posse. “See if the last three are nearby.” 

Thirty minutes later, Kend bellowed, “Sheriff, over here!” When she joined him and Koda, she found them staring at humanoid bones. 

“How many?” she asked.

“Two.” Koda growled. 

“Then we have to figure out who’s missing,” Corrie said as Mando knelt next to them and turned a couple.

“Do you have any Zabrak residents?” Mando asked, holding up a grisly, horned skull.

“No,” Koda said, kneeling to dig out the other skull. “I don’t know what this is, but it isn’t human.”

“Rodian,” Mando observed. “I think these are the two Mare mentioned going missing.” He set the skull down. “Both have been chewed on.”

“Kriffing Maneater,” Corrie snarled. 

“I’m going to recommend that if we continue to hunt for him, we all regroup and stay together as a group.” Mando peered around the area. “It’d be too easy to pick us off if he’s watching us.”

“And boss,” Koda said, holding up his chrono, “it’s now Lifeday’s Eve.”

With Koda pointing out the lateness of the hour, Corrie felt suddenly tired. She looked at the black forest around them, at the infinite shadows in which a black-furred Wookie could hide. “Yeah, it’s time to go home. If we’re going to take down Maneater, we should come ready for that.”

As they were regrouping, she took one last look at the dark night. Next time they came out here, she vowed silently, they would take him down.


End file.
